The Forgotten Web Site

Your web site is up and running, all the hard work is now done. You can forget about it and sit back and let the customers come calling, right?

Unfortunately the majority of business web sites go unattended. In today's digital age a web site that is 2-3 months old is out of date. The majority of today's new customers will check out your web site before they ever contact you for more information. If you expect to drive traffic to your web site, as well as keep returning customers interested you MUST have a plan for maintaining your web site.

Top four reasons to maintain your web site:

1. Keep your customers coming back. If your customers know what your company is currently doing/offering they will purchase more from you.

2. Higher Search Engine Rankings. Nothing will plummet your search engine results like a stale web site. All the keywords on the web won't help if you haven't changed your web site in the last two+ years.

3. A current web site aids in other marketing endeavors by keeping everyone up to date on events, specials, and news.

4. Improves your brand Image, it shows you are current and active.

Excellent Strategies to keep your web site updated and scoring higher on the search engines:

1. E-mail Marketing. Nothing drives repeat traffic to your web site like contacting your customer base directly. Update your customers every 4 to 6 weeks with new information and a link to your web site. Ask us about our custom email campaign designs and sign up for a free 60 day trial through Constant Contact.

2. Add new content to your web site at least every month, every week or two is even better.

3. Cultivate incoming links. These are very important for scoring high on search engines as well as driving traffic to your web site. Have friends or know other businesses with web sites? Exchange links. List your company on Internet Business listings. Contact suppliers, manufactures and other related businesses for links. Each link coming into your web site is a potential path for new customers.

4. Analyze and review your content. Is it out of date? Does it still reflect your brand?

5. Review your web site statistics. Keep tabs on where users are coming from, how long they are staying on your web site and what they are looking at. Don't have web site statistics? Definitely time to up date your web site!

A web site maintenance plan is critical to having a healthy online presence. Web sites are never truly finished and require attention and care. Everyone is looking for new customers in today's marketplace and a fresh and well maintained web site should be one of your first tactics in acquiring new customers.

Remember, if you forget about your web site, your customers may forget about you.